Custom Wooden DM Screens
I am a big fan of Dungeons and Dragons (DnD). Part of that has to do with my friend Alex to intorduce me to in several years back. The other part has to do with listening to actual play podcast. Penny Arcade’s Acq Inc, Sneak Attack and The Titans of All’terra. While Acq Inc has a speical place and I do enjoy it the theatrics around all of it. I felt a bit distance from them.
Although for Sneak Attack and Titans of All’terra these two sister podcasts set it up so that you felt as if you were at the table with them. Boy did I feel like I was part of these games. It gave me the chance to get my wife involved in DnD more. I felt part of their community. I decided to do something special for each of the the Dungeon Master (DM) and it gave me the chance to make something.
I used 1/4 inch plywood. The center panel is 20 inches by 12 inches. Each side panel is 10 inches by 12 inches. On the back side I set up some magnets to act as a place to place any notes that they would need. That way they could use a paper clip to connect it to the screen.
On the front or the side that the players would see I went ahead and used a wood burner to etch in the logos. The Sneak Attack log it s 20-sided die (D20) crossed with a old school mic. I found a photo of their logo and printed it out. I them used that image to make a stencil to trace. I covered it with clear packing tape then cut it out with a small knife. The packing tape helps give it extra body. To stand up to some abuse. In fact I kept the stencil and I have it on the pegboard behind my workbench. It makes me happy to see it around.
Once the stencil was cut out I used a pencil to trace it onto the main panel. From there I traced it with the wood burner. That was the eay part. I then needed to fill in the shape so it would stand out. The down side was that I only had a chisel tip. I pushed through and made it work. I bet that you never would have noticed.
Next I moved onto the Titans of All'‘teras logo thing. I am not sure if you would techincally call it a logo but it was defenitaly part of their marketing, so I went with it. In the story these are ruins from a past civilation they the party is trying to find more about. Since they were more simple to “write” out I did free hand them. Though they needed to be straight to each other. I traced out some lines and penciled them in. After that it was time wood burn.
Once everything was completed I added on some hinges and put on a few coats of poly with a light sanding inbetween. I packed them up with some Oreos for the players and sent them off.
This was a fun build and got me down in the shop. Just seeing what I could make and having fun.
